


Beloved

by LittleDuck15



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adorable, Bucky Feels, Cute, Fluff, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve Feels, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, four years later, they finally have a family, tony is smug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-22 14:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2511191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDuck15/pseuds/LittleDuck15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Multiple chapters. </p><p>Bucky and Steve finally add a third member to their family</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Multiple chapters. 
> 
> Feel free to tell me your thoughts!  
> Since i am a strong advocate for adoption and have a serious thing for Bucky and Steve having a child one way or another i thought i would join the two :-)  
> All mistakes are my own. This is unbeta'd

Beloved

  
Bucky’s twitching in his seat. He’s trying hard to hide it – Steve can’t help but smile momentarily at the concentration etched into his partner’s face. He must catch it from the corner of his eye because in the next second he goes truly still which brings a soft chuckle bubbling out of Steve.

With a pinched scowl Bucky grumbles something under his breath in an attempt to look highly offended. It’s completely ruined by the light blush dusting his cheeks. He’s been caught red-handed, no denying it. Bucky Barnes is nervous – no, nervous doesn’t even _touch_ on the emotion roiling in his chest, sending tingles shooting through every limb. He’s even sure his arm has them despite how it’s a piece of metal and if it’s feeling tingles it’s more likely from something shorting out in the complex prosthetic. He should probably mention this to Tony. He catches himself mid-ramble, fully aware that the only reason his mind can’t seem to stay on one topic for more than a few seconds since they got home is what’s going to happen shortly.

When Steve reaches over to take Bucky’s hand and smile reassuringly, he can’t help the blanket of safety that immediately settles over the nervous tingles. _Everything will be okay_ Steve’s warm eyes promise him even as Bucky picks out his lover’s own anxiety over the situation. They continue in their bubble of silence, content for the moment to allow the other to be swallowed up by their own thoughts.

The sharp chirp of Steve’s phone makes both super-soldiers jump and then hurriedly scramble for the little silver device. Bucky grabs it first from its position on the table and fumbles with it for a moment before he remembers how to unlock the stupid thing. It’s a message from Natasha announcing they are arriving at Stark Tower. Such a simple collection of words yet it makes Bucky’s eyes dart up to Steve’s in momentary panic as he croaks out, “They’re on their way up.”

Steve takes a deep breath and shakes his head to clear his jumbled thoughts. “Okay. Okay good. Uhm, we should – we should…yeah I have no idea what we should do.” Steve rubs the back of his neckin embarassment.

Bucky snorts at his dork of a boyfriend and lifts his fingers to try and sift them through his hair. It’s only then that he realises they’ve forgotten something crucial. “Shit, Stevie! We need to get changed!”

Steve doesn’t have time to so much as widen his eyes before Bucky’s hauling him up and pushing him into the bathroom ahead of him. When Steve catches sight of his reflection in the mirror, the question dies in his throat as he realises what Bucky is panicking about. Dried blood caked on his left temple, dirt smudged across every available piece of skin and dark red-brown staining from a particularly nasty wound inflicted on one of his more daring attackers splattered across the once-white star and stripes of his suit.

“Fuck.” He mutters, taking up Bucky’s lead by snatching a poor unsuspecting towel to clean off the worst of it.

The blurted curse only makes Bucky pause for a second in surprise before he’s biting back a grin at the ridiculousness of the situation. Two super-soldiers standing in a pristine white bathroom trying in vain to clean blood off battle gear before their friend the Russian spy arrives on their floor and changes everything forever. Trying his best to bite back the laughter desperate to escape him, Bucky offers a freshly wet towel to Steve, tossing the soiled ones in the basket beside the sink.

This is something they will have to get used to, and fast, Steve muses. No more walking into the apartment and collapsing face-first on the nearest available surface, in full gear, covered in whatever muck they’d accumulated during the latest mission because they were too tired to shower.

Armed with wet towels they set to work on making themselves look presentable as quickly as possible. There’s no time to change, not with Nat already in the elevator and halfway up to their floor by now, so they settle for scrubbing the blood from their gear as best they can. Hopefully it’s enough to obscure exactly what the stains are.

“Ma would kill me if she knew we were doing this.” Steve groans, rubbing emphatically at a particularly bad blotch on his shoulder.

Bucky grins, “Don’t see nothin’ wrong with greetin’ our kid in blood-soaked armour, Stevie. It’s not like it’s even our blood.” Bucky makes a show of checking himself, and then Steve, over with small pats before leaning back and with his best poker face says, “Now, if it was your blood, Punk, then your Ma would have more than summin’ to say about your irresponsibility.” Steve laughs long before Bucky cracks his faux-serious expression.

After a few seconds their chuckles die out. There’s a moment where Bucky spots the outright fear in the soft blue eyes he loves so much. “We’re really doing this.” Steve whispers shakily, the enormity of what they’re about to take on crashing down once more.

Bucky gives a firm nod, “We’re really doing it.”

Steve leans against the sink and tips his head back, suppressing a groan. “What if we completely mess up, Buck? What if exposing someone else to our crazy lives is truly insane? You heard that social worker – she needs a stable environment where she can feel safe. There’s no such thing as safe for us!”

Bucky takes Steve’s face between his hands before more of his panic-filled chatter can make it past his lips. “Enough of that, Soldier.” He presses a feather-light kiss to Steve’s nose. “There’s a little girl on her way up right now – _our_ little girl – and we’re gonna be the best damn parents this side of the galaxy for one reason.” He pulls away just enough to make sure Steve knows there isn’t an ounce of doubt in him when he says, “We love her. Okay? Everything else is second to that.”

After giving Steve a moment to let his words sink in, Bucky playfully shoves Steve’s shoulder and offers a cocky grin. “Besides, her dads are Captain America and The Winter Soldier. Her guardian is a millionaire tycoon with a brain the size of Jupiter. She has both the Black Widow and a Norse God wrapped around her pinkie. I think she’ll be fine.”

Steve can’t deny the truth in Bucky’s words. She’ll be the most loved and protected child on earth. A thought makes Steve’s nose wrinkle in horror as he whines, “Ah, God, Buck. Tony’s gonna spoil her wrotten.”

Lacking the heart to tell Steve the spoiling has long since begun Bucky opts for kissing the grumble right off his love's lips. Three booming thumps on the front door has the pair tensing up as their hearts jump wildly in a mixture of excitement and fear. She’s here.


	2. Two years ago

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some background on what led Bucky and Steve to adoption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be interspersing current chapters with background chapters which will be in past tense instead of present. Hope you enjoy

"Bucky-"

"No."

"Just liste-"

" I said no, Stark! Drop the fucking subject." the fingers of his metal hand curled in, prepared for the fight Bucky wasn't going to let happen. Especially with Stark. The man may be a royal pain in the ass but even he didn't deserve to take the fall for the shit swirling around in Bucky's head. 

Tony muttered something unnder his breath before throwing up his hands in frustration. "Fine, Continue on your little pity-fest. Not like it would help anyone or anything. I'm sure little limbless kids will be perfectly fine with doll-parts for arms. Forgive me for daring to suggest to the mighty Winty Soldier that he give me access to a technological masterpiece. Clearly far too traumatising, what was i thinking." he shrugged, turned on his heel and left the apartment with a wave back at Bucky who hovered by the window with an unpleasant scowl marring his features.

Bucky wanted nothing more than to wring the self-important idiot's kneck but decided it wouldn't be nice to mess up the room with a dead body for Steve to find when he returned, not when Bucky'd spent the whole morning reorganising everything. Forcing himself to release the tension bunching up his muscles, Bucky took a deep breath and slumped against the window. He realised he was overreacting to Stark's request but even after two years free from HYDRA it put him on edge to even think about being poked and prodded once more, regardless of the fact that Tony would be the one to do any tests. 

Self-consciously he rubbed at the spot where metal met flesh, the contrasting temperatures of warm and cold making him wince. He ducked his head in shame when a wave of loathing washed over him, fully aware that beyond the discomfort of being a test subject once more the only reason he wouldn't let Stark near it was because he wouldn't wish his curse on anyone.And no matter what Steve said about it being a part of him, Bucky couldn't bring himself to accept the prosthetic.

It was only when he heard Steve opening the door that Bucky shook himself out of his surly funk and straightened up from his position. He had approximately fifteen seconds to compose himself before Steve picked out that something was wrong. Sure enough even though Bucky was absolutely sure there wasn't a single chink in his armor, Steve only had to lift his eyes to his boyfriend's for a frown to darken the glint in his cornflower blue eyes.

"Tony." Steve grumbled, dropping his keys on the kitchen table before closing the gap and wrapping his arms around Bucky.Steve was the only person allowed to manhandle Bucky without any protest from the super assassin. In fact, Steve was the only one that Bucky felt safe enough around to completely let go. He tucked his head under Steve's chin, lips settling on his neck as Bucky curled the flesh hand over Steve's hip. 

It didn't escape attention that Bucky wasn't touching him with the metal arm but Steve allowed Bucky a minute to soak in the comfort of their embrace before he tried to fix everything as usual. Only, what came out of Steve's mouth wasn't exactly what Bucky'd been thinking he would say. " I think you should do it, Buck." Steve didn't react when Bucky went tense in his arms, instead he simply ran his fingers through Bucky's shaggy locks, massaging his scalp gently. 

Nothing else was said for a long while, a silence in which Bucky was left with only his own mind to fill in the blanks that Steve so strategically placed by that single statement. In the last two years Steve had learned to master the concept of less is more when it came to his partner. There was no need to elaborate, Bucky could hear it clear as day without him uttering a word. _You'll be giving them the chance to live normal lives. HYDRA doesn't control you, Buck, you can accept it now. I love you, i'm not going anywhere._

 With a gentle sigh Bucky gave a small nod, just enough to let Steve know he'd won this round as he pulled away slightly. "Okay." He was such a push-over when it came to pleasing Steve.

Steve did his best to smother his proud grin but Bucky could feel it when he pressed a lingering kiss to his forehead. "Love you, Buck."

Rolling his eyes Bucky snorted, "Love ya too, Punk."

As they lay in bed that night, while Bucky mulled over his decision to give Stark full access to the arm - his arm, he corrected himself, Steve traced the metal plates with tender strokes of his fingers that Bucky wished he could feel.The technology was good, but not _that_ good.

"I love this arm too, you know." Steve mused, kissing the shield encasing the once-red star on his shoulder.

Tilting his head to the side to get a good look at Steve propped up on his elbow, hair stickinng up in every direction and a lopsided smile curving his lips, Bucky raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? And how's that?"

Steve grinned, " Hey, the hate for it is all from you, Buck. No one else has a problem with it."

Bucky didn't even try arguing that, not when Steve had that spark in his eye that told him he wouldn't win this even if they argued it for the next hundred years. " You were tellin' me something about loving the hunk of junk?"

Steve narrowed his eyes at Bucky's description but decided to answer him anyway." Yep. Cause it saved you, Buck. This arm saved your life and brought you back to me, so of course i love it." he splayed his fingers out across Bucky's bicep, now warm from his earlier  attention to it.

For a moment Bucky wished that Steve could say that without such sincerity in his tone, the unflinching honesty in his every move. It was a lot easier to hate what HYDRA had permanently fused to his system when he thought others did too. Alas, that was not the case with the man before him. "You are quite possibly the biggest sap on earth, Captain Rogers." he announced, fondly, capturing Steve's wandering hand with his metal one and bringing it up to his lips.

"Jerk." Steve laughed, flopping down into the pillows.

"Punk."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow...i truly didn't intend for it to be that cliche and cheesy. i apologise! haha anyway, i'd love to hear your thoughts so drop me a comment and tell me what you loved or didn't love about it!


End file.
